Friday, January 4, 2013

Managing magazines in libraries- part One

         How do you manage your magazines?? Do you let them circulate? Do you hold them for reading in the  library?
      There are many questions and differences of attack in the circulation and storing of magazines.  Also now that the computer age is here, many have done away with many of the issues of magazines .
        But Patrons and students like the magazines , and they do get read.  Many students come in and just want to read the papers and look at the magazines.  More and more families do not receive magazines and newspapers at home .
        One way to go is to  not let them circulate and have them be read in the library during open hours. This may be the easiest to do. Check in the magazines when they arrive , put on a couple of  prpperty stamps., arrange them on the shelves, and straighten them at the end of the day.
         If you chose this route- you many find that some just happen to"walk" out the door.  Yes, the most popular ones will be not in good shape.  But that will be the case in either option of holding or circulating.
        Another plan for magazines is one that many schools and public libraries do with their magazines. They hold the current monthly issue and let the back issues  go out. This seems to work well for the most part.
         If you  decide to circulate your back issues the next problem is how to go about it?  There are several different ideas here. One is to simply write down on a card the title of the magazine, issue/month and year, and place the borrowers name on  the card. File by date due. When the item is returned - cross out or erase the name of the borrower.
        Save the Card for use if some on else wants the same issue-  These cards could be made up ahead of time so they would be  at the ready when a patron wants to borrow a magazine
         What do you do with your magazines?  What are your issues with magazines?

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